SEASIDE Electric cars may be just around the corner or, rather, driving down U.S. Highway 101 and when they do, Seaside may be ready to give them an energy boost.

With the Oregon Department of Transportation already planning to place charging stations in Tillamook, Cannon Beach and Astoria beginning next spring, Seaside businesses are considering how they might operate a station of their own for electric car drivers to recharge their batteries.

Entrepreneurs Chad Biasi and Hans van der Meer, partners in the Portland-based EV4 Oregon LLC, are talking to local businesses about paying $150 a month for five years for a licensing agreement. If at least six business owners agree, the company would install a two-car recharging station in Seaside.

The money would go to repay an investor who has spent $175,000 to buy the charging station. With tax credits and government grants, the investors cost could be knocked down to $40,000, said van der Meer.

 The company already has 60 investors who are interested in placing charging stations throughout Western Oregon, van der Meer said. Two stations have been installed in Portland and Seattle.

Although the local businesses wouldnt own the station after five years, the licensing agreement would allow them to market and operate the station any way they want. A hotel owner, for instance, may offer a free re-charge to electric car customers spending a night or two at the hotel.

 This will set the community apart from anybody on the coast, and this is a destination community, Biasi said during a presentation at a recent Seaside Downtown Development Association meeting.

Terry Bichsel, owner of the Best Western Ocean View Resort and the Rivertide Suites in Seaside, said he is in the early stage of discussion with EV4 Oregon. A decision wont come, he said, for at least another month or two.

Were evaluating it carefully, he added. It has to make some economic sense. If you consider how many true electric cars there are, the market is not huge. It has got to make some sense in terms of viability.

Dubbed an Energy Transfer Merchant, the two-car charging station consists of four concrete curved poles rising from the ground and holding a solar-powered platform. Two chargers are attached to the poles. Electricity comes from solar power as well as underground batteries.

The companys brochure touts, We put sunlight into your car.

While the idea of electric cars and charging stations may seem strange now, Biasi said it wouldnt always be like that.

In 10 years, they will be as commonplace as the Internet is now, he said.

By 2015, Oregon will have 30,000 electric car plug-ins if Gov. John Kitzhabers Oregon Transportation Electrification Executive Council achieves its goal, said Art James, project director of the Oregon Innovative Partnerships Program.

By 2020, state transportation officials predict electric cars are expected to make up 20 percent of new vehicles sold in Oregon. And, according to a study done by the University of California, 64 percent of all the cars sold in the United States by 2030 will be electric.

At least 900 Nissan Leaf all-electric, high-speed cars are expected in the Oregon market within the next year, and other manufacturers have announced plans for building highway-ready electric cars, James said.

Its really going to ramp up pretty quickly, he added.

James is overseeing the $2 million Tiger II grant Oregon received from the U.S. Department of Transportation that will pay for up to 24 fast charge stations in northwest Oregon.

Among the 22 cities selected so far are Lincoln City, Tillamook, Cannon Beach, Astoria, Clatskanie, Elsie and Banks. Others are on the central and southern Oregon coast, in the Columbia Gorge, near Mount Hood and southwest of the Portland metro area.

Other government programs are supplying at least 1,100 publicly available charging stations from Portland to southern Oregon over the next several months.

Because many of the electric cars being driven now can hold a charge for a maximum of 100 miles, the placement of charging stations should be no more than 50 miles apart, James said. Cannon Beach and Astoria were chosen because of their locations.

Cannon Beach is an important intersection of U.S. Highway 26 and Highway 101, and the distance between Tillamook and Cannon Beach is within the required (50-mile) range, James said.

 It will take 20 to 30 minutes to charge a car with the level three fast chargers being installed by AeroVironment Inc., a Monrovia, Calif. company chosen by the state to fulfill the contract.

Possible locations for Cannon Beachs charging station are at the city parking lot in midtown, at the citys RV Park east of the highway or at the SurfSand Resort, said Mark See, city public works director.

Although a charging station originally had been planned behind the public restrooms downtown, See said that site was harder to reach, took up valuable parking space and wasnt as visible to the public as the other sites would be. The proposed locations also are easier to reach from the highway, he added.

If Seaside merchants decide to purchase a license agreement to install their own charging station, the site may have already been determined: two parking spaces adjacent to the public restrooms north of the Seaside Chamber of Commerce.

However, noted Mark Winstanley, the City Council would have to agree to lease city-owned land.

The city hasnt made any commitment, Winstanley said. Were still waiting for them (Biasi and van der Meer) to explain how this is going to work.

A presentation on the proposal is planned at the Nov. 28 City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

Because the charging station would attract tourists who might want to head to the coast in their electric cars but need to be assured they can get their batteries charged for the trip home, some tourism funds may be used toward the licensing agreement.

 Russ Vandenberg, manager of the Seaside Convention and Civic Center, said he will make the suggestion at the citys tourism advisory committees meeting Nov. 16.

I would love to have vehicle charging cards at the visitors bureau, said Vandenberg, who helped Biasi and van der Meer find a location and introduced them to city officials and local business operators.

This sends a message across the state that Seaside is looking for a way to reduce emissions, and its an invitation to people to drive their electric vehicles to Seaside, he said.

Al Smiles, director of the Seaside Chamber of Commerce, called the charging station a good idea.

I think its the future of travel in many respects, he said. It offers an opportunity for visitors and business owners to come to this part of the coast and have the confidence that they have the power to get back home.

Smiles said he suggested that different payment options be offered to business operators in addition to the straight $150-per-month payments. They might make a down payment, he said, and pay a reduced monthly amount, or they may have gold, silver and bronze plans.

With charging stations already planned in Astoria and Cannon Beach, if Seaside doesnt install one of its own, the city might waste the potential for attracting visitors, Smiles said.

 If its not here, people will never come here to use it . … Without it, were not providing the same service that Cannon Beach provides, he said.

Having a charging station might also open a potential market for electric vehicle sales in Seaside, Smiles added.

When the (internal combustion engine) car came out, Im sure a lot of people said it would never catch on, he said.

 But with oil being a finite source, and with the economy changing, people are taking shorter trips. We may be on the edge of a transportation revolution.